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It’s one thing to be praised as a can’t miss starting rotation, the best in the American League, a collection of five No. 1 starters.

It’s another to measure up to all the hype.

Standing in his always huge media scrum, with his distinctive white head band, Jays starter R.A. Dickey knows better than to buy too far into the hype.

Dickey understands too many things about expectations, about the grind of 162 games, about failure, to ever place success ahead of its delivery date.

For the Jays starting rotation, and for Dickey, success is based on several different rationales beyond the obvious high calibre of each of the five members of the rotation. Still, Dickey is a fan somewhere alongside everything else that he is in baseball; he can’t help but get excited over the 2013 five-some that stacks up with him pitching Opening Day, followed by Brandon Morrow, Mark Buehrle, Josh Johnson, and Ricky Romero.

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“Yes, it’s the best rotation I’ve been part of . . . I should say that I’ve only been part of that since 2010 so I don’t have a big example to resource, but you look at us and any one of us can take the ball Opening Day, so that definitely reduces the pressure,” Dickey said. “We don’t have to be the stopper every time we go out there. One of us will do that and we can feed off each other that way.”

Each of the five starters maintains that this rotation is the best they’ve ever been a part of. The danger — not supported by any of the five — is that the “best” adjective automatically elevates Toronto’s starting five into the argument regarding the best rotations in baseball.

A look around the web, in stories rating rotations for 2013, produces reports that keep the Jays rotation out of the top five rankings.

Dickey and Co. won’t argue the predictions in spring training; their focus concerns proving themselves more than proving they fit into those rankings.

The best rotations, according to those reports, centres on a group of five teams, in no particular order, that includes Washington, Philadelphia, Detroit, San Francisco, and either Tampa or Los Angeles.

The Jays certainly rate high mention, but they generally fall outside that group, in sixth or slightly higher (lower).

It’s interesting to note that during spring training, several veteran American League scouts said Tampa’s rotation is not only the best in the league, but that the Rays are the best team in the American League East Division.

What Dickey and Co. realize is that they will be scrutinized in relation to that argument about the “best” rotations. It’s unavoidable, largely because of the depth of talent aboard.

Here’s a look at each individual starter, and how each one feels about the starting five.

R.A. DICKEY

Dickey is baseball’s philosopher king, English professor pitcher. He is well read, well spoken, well grounded, and might one day write about baseball as well as he throws a knuckleball.

During spring training, he was often asked to put the starting five into some perspective. Dickey, given his experience and patience with media, doesn’t just give his opinions — he approaches them first.

Rather than simply making a statement about the Jays staff being the best he’s ever been a part of, he offers a whole range of support

For instance, he has an interesting, somewhat unorthodox take on the importance of chemistry, both on the staff and with the team. Talk about the Jays team, one that came together within the span of some shrewd trades and signings in the off-season, has them needing to focus on becoming a team instead of a collection of superstars.

“Chemistry in itself is a word that gets tossed around so much . . . it won’t make you a championship team,” the knuckleballer says.

“It’s being prepared that counts, it keeps an eight game losing streak to three or four. Chemistry is important, it is a good component of a team, but we have a lot of older guys so what will be important is guys taking ownership, so it’s not my team, it’s not Brett Lawrie’s team, it’s a collective effort, it’s a bunch of guys doing their jobs every day.

“I was never in it to cash in for one year and win it all, it was to be competitive for years to come, and the direction the Jays were going in was important to me. Alex (GM Anthopoulos) was very persuasive with that. You had a good sense there was a commitment to winning, and you see the other trades and knowing the addition of these other players was big for me, that component was big for me.”

Experts argue the Jays, with five so-called No. 1 starters, could be in for a clash of egos by placing, for instance, Morrow ahead of Johnson in the rotation (Johnson has started the last three Opening Days, but is slotted fourth in the Jays rotation).

Again, Dickey supports the mantra of five No. 1s, rather than any negative fall out from assembling such a gifted group.

“I think it is important for us to be consistent as a staff,” he said.

“I think we have the luxury of not having to shoulder the burden of being a No. 1 or No. 2, the pecking order doesn’t matter in our rotation, and that’s a great deal. You don’t have to be the stopper all the time, there’s a lot of pedigree here . . . Josh (Johnson) led the league in ERA, Mark (Buehrle) has been a 200 innings pitcher for a long time . . . so you get an interesting dynamic, and we’re all No. 1s, any guy who has the ball here is No. 1.

As for himself, he makes the mental part sound easy, and convincing.

“Mentally (change), no . . . the more you talk to me the more you’ll see (the mental side) will not change,” he says.

“It’s taken a lot of time to grow into this present mind . . . the worst thing I can do is try to win another Cy Young Award for the Toronto Blue Jays. The best thing is to commit to the process and make it work over time.”

BRANDON MORROW

Morrow, if you subscribe to a general rule of thumb about the Jays rotation, should have an awesome season following Dickey in the rotation.

It’s power after flutter, and the thinking goes that Morrow, with his mid to high 90 mph stuff, should reap the benefits of facing a batting order a day after having its timing disjointed by Dickey’s knuckle ball.

Morrow politely leaves those arguments to the critics.

And while he knows he will be judged in part against this apparent privilege of his placement in the rotation, his actual dynamic on the team changes dramatically from what it was in 2012.

Morrow, with essentially one full year as a major league starter entering last season, was thrust not only into a top of the order responsibility, but into a role as leader of the staff.

The leadership was actually a team-up with Romero. Both were expected to bond as a leadership tandem. They were to lead by example and take control of a rotation that at one point featured three pitchers fresh out of no more than class AA experience. They were to be leaders of all that, and more, with less than five years experience as major league starters themselves.

The Jays, a year ago in spring training, even had them play catch together from day one. The two were to continue that gesture throughout the season as a signal to the rest of the team of their leadership bond.

It was a wonderful opportunity and a potential career pillar, but it was also a complex situation for two relatively young pitchers with no experience to fall back on.

“Last year you wouldn’t have considered me and Ricky to be veterans, but we were in that rotation (2012),” Morrow said.

“We were asked to do our jobs on the field and to mentor young guys. It makes our job easier now to know there’s self understanding in our rotation, and now it’s the reverse where Ricky and I can ask them. I’ve gone from the oldest in the rotation to being the second youngest. Guys have gone from one and two years experience to 13 years and more.”

If Morrow is to reach new career highs within this super rotation, it will come from the experience of his recent past in Toronto, but it will be boosted from the experience of working with true veterans on the staff.

Morrow enters this spring training with the basic focus most veteran starters have: to work on preparation, on repeating delivery, and refining a proven arsenal of pitches.

An important key for Morrow, as he sees it, is preparation. He now has the example of Buehrle, a World Series winner, Johnson, a league ERA leader, and Dickey, the defending Cy Young Award winner, instead of having to set an example himself.

“Not only are they impressive as a group and as individuals, but these guys know how to prepare,” Morrow said of the rotation.

“They know how to handle the internal pressure and on the field that may have been lacking last year. It’s what we’re trying to grow is the preparation, we’re trying to get young guys to learn how hard it is to prepare.”

Something had already set in with Morrow and the other pitchers in camp when Buehrle arrived. Everyone around the team began talking of Buehrle’s efficiency — he is considered one of the quickest, if not the quickest, working pitchers in baseball.

Morrow now had that example at his fingertips, and it made an impression.

“Buehrle, I’d say he’s the fastest in the game,” Morrow said.

“I’m not at a snail’s pace. I look at the sign and decide what pitch I want to throw, and I started doing more of that (quicker pace) last year. I did start doing that too, throwing to contact, and using my defence. Focus, I don’t think it’s a problem with these guys. Talking to RA Dickey, Josh Johnson, and Buehrle, they’re not ego guys, or guys who will try and do too much. They know themselves, I think everyone has a good perspective.”

MARK BUEHRLE

The lefty is undoubtedly a stabilizing influence on the staff, but it’s his own stability in Toronto that comes under question.

While it’s difficult to expect anything but excellence from this veteran, one who has seven consecutive years of 200 plus innings, he is certainly in a splintered career situation.

His ties to his family and his beloved pit bull pet have been well documented. Buehrle is not happy with Ontario’s pit bull ban and the separation it’s forced on his family and his pets.

There is, however, a quality to Buehrle, one that exudes professionalism.

While he is not happy with his living situation, one of the happiest places in his life has always been the ball park.

“When you see me out there on the mound, I like to have fun, I like to have a smile on my face because I just love being at the ballpark,” Buehrle said. “I’m out there laughing, good start, bad start, I throw it out and go out the next day and try and have fun at the park.”

Buehrle’s positivity is an obvious thread in his career, but this season it will be tested, and not only by separation factor in his personal life. He is coming off the disappointment of being traded out of Miami after committing his family and himself to four years with the Marlins on the promise of championship glory from ownership.

Buehrle, like Jose Reyes, left no doubt of the effect the broken ties and promises in Miami left with him.

Buehrle has adjusted to his departure from Miami, where his family remains for the completion of the school year before returning to their off-season home in St. Louis. He’s also adjusted to what will be a solo living condition in Toronto.

That storyline will not fade. But Buehrle brings a level of pitching excellence with him that is unique in baseball. His quick pace on the mound, his ability to throw strikes at any time with any pitch in any count, and the wealth of the individual nature of his success, sets an undeniable example in the clubhouse.

That example may arguably be larger than any other among the starting five.

Buehrle owns more prolonged success than any other Jays pitcher, and most pitchers in the game. It’s an incredibly proficient body of work, and other pitchers on the staff have gone out of their way to take note of how Buehrle prepares and handles himself.

Buehrle’s most immediate impact may come with Romero, who is looking for a bounce-back season after a difficult 2012.

Buehrle doesn’t fancy himself as the teaching type, but he is open to talking baseball with anyone.

“Yeah, for sure, I am happy to talk about anything (Romero) likes, I’m not the teaching type but I’m available,” Buehrle said.

“I don’t know if I can pass along one specific thing, but if what I do helps . . . I try to go out and make pitches. Good or bad, the next pitch is always the focus. If you give it up, if you give up a homer or whatever, the next pitch is your focus. You always want to make a quality pitch with your next pitch. After the ball leaves your hand, it’s history. It’s always the next pitch that’s important.”

JOSH JOHNSON

Josh Johnson has some awe inspiring stats, and some unflattering figures, mixed into his 2012 season.

He was bouncing back from shoulder surgery in 2011 and performed admirably well, save for the fact he’d lost seven of his final nine outings.

His 2011 opened incredibly — he took a no hitter into the fifth inning in five of his first six starts. The surgery limited him to 60 innings, and he came back in 2012 with 191.

This is a tall right handed power pitcher who says he “never” looks at his stats. But he does think one of his key goals with the Jays is logging 200 innings. It seems like a universal measuring stick of contribution for every starter.

“That’s hard for me,” Johnson said when asked to size up himself for 2013.

“Hopefully for me it’s going out and working a lot of innings this year. People talk about me and last year I pitched (191) innings . . . it wasn’t terrible, I thought it was until I took a better look at it. So to go out and pitch 200 innings this year would be important, but I’m not here for my stats, I’m here for the team.”

“I NEVER look at my stats, ever,” he added.

“My wife has a better idea that I do. I looked this off season, someone had me sign a card so I looked on the back and I said to myself, that’s not too bad.”

A stat that similarly means nothing to Johnson is his apparent No. 4 slot in the rotation. The slotting contrasts the fact he’s been the Opening Day starter the last three seasons. But Johnson has a firm perspective of the depth of the Jays rotation.

Like Dickey and the rest of the starters, he sees the pecking order as five No. 1s, not one through five.

That perspective remains the overriding one when it comes to discussing any potential trouble with slotting so many true No. 1 pitchers on one staff.

“It doesn’t matter where I start, once the season gets under way, it’s all jumbled up anyways,” Johnson said.

“I don’t get caught up with one to five, our rotation is really good so there’s a little of everything in it. You got that knuckleball in there and it’s fun to watch. He’s unbelievable with it, Buehrle gets it done, Morrow has nasty stuff and Ricky is a great pitcher and hopefully he bounces back.”

As for himself, Johnson, like Morrow and other power pitchers, is adjusting the power element of their games and allowing for more pitching to contact.

“I have got by in this game by blowing the ball by guys, but now it’s trying to get (uncomfortable) at-bats,” he said.

“The curve, I actually had it in 2003, but I didn’t really use it much until 2011. I’d have a bunch of starts and maybe 10 innings I’d use it just to get a strike. Last year I started using it a lot more. I was in the South Atlantic League and they said I wasn’t consistent with it so go to a slider. Now, if I can be 90 to 95 mph and a change up pitch at 80 to 82, that’s great, it’s like I have another pitch to keep them off balance. Last year for a third of the season I was inconsistent. But I started throwing for strikes, but I didn’t always have control of it. I wasn’t aggressive enough with it. Now it’s fastball, changeup, curve, slider.”

RICKY ROMERO

Romero knows as much as any of the starting five about the importance of staying healthy.

His perspective on health tempers the unavoidable hype surrounding the rotation.

“I think the biggest thing is for everyone to keep feet on the ground,” said Romero, who underwent procedures on his arm and knees in the off season.

“Yes, the names are very good on paper. But that doesn’t change anything, we still have to go out and get outs. And what’s important is staying healthy. It’s definitely pretty special when you add all those names to the rotation. When you add a Cy Young winner, then you know Mark (Buehrle) was a World Series winner; and Josh is just a fantastic pitcher. It’s pretty exciting. But we know we have business to take care of. We have to have that attitude that it doesn’t matter what anyone says about us, it’s up to us to deliver what we’re capable of.”

Romero, like Morrow, finds himself in a completely different context within this rotation. Gone is the staff ace tag he earned over the past two seasons. It’s not a function of performance; instead, it’s a matter of context — he’s one of five aces.

How they respond individually to that concept will help define the season.

“It doesn’t matter who is in the rotation or not. As for people saying does this take the pressure off, having all those guys in there, and I say definitely not. I put pressure on myself, every fifth day I put pressure on myself. I’m an under-the-radar guy but when I am pitching, I put pressure on myself and I want all eyes on me. I think a lot of the struggle in this sport is you want to do so much to make it better, and you don’t, at least not that way. So you learn from it . . . you forget it’s 60 feet six inches, and you start getting caught up in a bunch of things. There are times when you are someone else because you are trying too hard and you’re not who you should be.”

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